The misuse and overuse of antimicrobials is a major driver of resistance. Among other factors associated with misuse/overuse is that clinicians often have insufficient information to prescribe the most appropriate course of treatment. For example, using clinical symptoms alone, it is difficult to distinguish bacterial infections - which can be treated with antibiotics - from viral infections - for which antibiotics should not be prescribed. Diagnostics are critical to such decision-making and the avoidance of misuse by providing information on the pathogen and its level of resistance, information on the host immune system, or the dosing required for individual patients.

At Imperial, interdisciplinary teams made up of clinicians, biologists and engineers work to develop new diagnostic technologies, which will be invaluable tools for combatting AMR. 

Example technologies and programmes include: 

• Novel, point-of care diagnostics solutions, called Dragonfly and Lacewing, for the detection of infectious diseases. These technologies are suitable for use in low resource and remote settings and are been developed and validated for a range of human, environmental and veterinary applications. 
  • Professor Pantelis Georgiou, Dr Jesus Rodriguez Manzano, Dr Aubrey Cunnington, Dr Ivana Pennisi, Dr Nick Moser
  • Read more: Digital Diagnostics for African Health Systems and Digital Diagnostics for TB (section 6 of the link)
• ProtonDx: An Imperial spinout company established in 2020 to commercialise diagnostic solutions, including Lacewing and Dragonfly, for thee detection of infectious diseases.
  • Dr Jesus Rodriguez Manzano, Professor Pantelis Georgiou, Dr Nick Moser, Dr Ivana Pennisi
• Host RNA-based diagnostics for bacterial and viral infection, TB, inflammatory diseases 
  • Professor Mike Levin, Professor Aubrey Cunnington, Professor Jethro Herberg, Dr Myrsini Kaforou, Dr Victoria Wright, Dr Shea Hamilton, Professor Pantelis Georgiou,  Dr Jesus Rodrigues Manzano, Dr Ivana Pennisi, Dr Vanessa Sancho-Shimizu
  • Read more: DIAMONDS 20200 EU project 
• Host biomarkers of infectious disease (metabolomic and transcriptomic)
  • Professor Shiranee Sriskandan, Dr Myrsini Kaforou, Dr Jesus Rodrigues Manzano
• DNA Nudge: 60 minutes Covid-19 Tests: Government orders 5.8 million DNA Nudge Kits; DNA Nudge and Nant Nudge accelerate handheld AI Ggenomics. AMR for infectious diseases – point of decision technology. Antibiotic stewardship, TB, STI’s, Respiratory, and Diabetic Foot infection. 
  • Professor Chris Toumazou 
  • Visit the site: https://www.dnanudge.com/ 
  • Read more: 90-minute COVID-19 tests: Government orders 5.8 million DnaNudge kits; DnaNudge and NantNudge accelerate handheld AI genomics
• DNA Electronics (DNAe): Point of care sequencing for AMR in Sepsis, using semi-conductors.
  • Professor Chris Toumazou 
  • Visit the site: https://www.dnae.com/
• Lipid fingerprint-based MALDI-ToF-based diagnostics for mycobacterial infections
  
  • Dr Gerald Larrouy-Maumus, Professor Francis Drobniewski
• HIV Quant: HIV close-to-care and point-of-care assay development 
  • Dr Catherine Kibirige
• AMR Diagnostics Developer Directory (ADDD) to facilitate exchange of ideas in the field
  • Dr Leonid Chindelevitch 
  • Read more: JPIAMR-funded B2B2B Network
• Microneedle biosensors to accurately detect patient antibiotic levels in real-time
  • Dr Timothy Rawson, Professor Alison Holmes, Professor Tony Cass, Professor Danny O'Hare
• Diagnostics and analysis of tuberculosis drug resistance
  • Professor Francis Drobniewski
• Evaluation of rapid diagnostics 
  • Professor Graham Cooke
• Developing novel diagnostics to develop personalised medicine in sepsis
  • Professor Anthony Gordon; Dr David Antcliffe
• Fungal diagnostics, novel precision diagnostics, immunodiagnostics
  • Professor Darius Armstrong-James
• Biologically relevant diagnostic infection signatures
  • Dr Matthew Siggins
• Using treatment decision algorithms for child TB diagnostics, using host omics approaches for child TB decision-making  
  • Professor James Seddon

Centres and networks with a focus on diagnostics for AMR: 

• Centre for Antimicrobial Optimisation
• NIHR Health Protection Research Unit in Healthcare Associated Infections and Antimicrobial Resistance
• Centre for Bacterial Resistance Biology (CBRB)
• Imperial College Academic Health Science Centre
• London in vitro Diagnostics Co-operative